Gets shot at redemption on Friday versus Millville
LINWOOD — Last year, the Mainland Regional High School football team fell 40 seconds short of reaching the NJSIAA Group IV state final in a stunning last-minute loss to eventual state champion Millville in the state semifinal.
On Friday night, the Mustangs earned the right to avenge that loss with a soul-confirming 49-7 statement win over Colts Neck (6-4) in the South Jersey Group IV semifinal. Mainland improved to 11-0 on the season.
The Mustangs will travel to Millville High School’s Wheaton Field on Nov. 10 for a shot at the sectional title against the defending champions.
“We worked for those 11 wins all last summer in workouts,” said Dan DeFeo, who was dominant in the middle of the line on offense and defense against Colts Neck. “We love the grind. We deserve this but we have to keep our heads down and keep working because we’re not done yet. We’re not finished.”
Mainland head coach Chuck Smith said his team had been very good at staying focused on the game in front of them and not looking down the road. Now, facing the defending state champions, which they came so close to beating a year ago, they know the Thunderbolts will be their biggest challenge.
“In our first team meeting this summer, we talked about getting a chance to play Millville. That was our goal and that was the last time we mentioned it. All this week, no one talked about the game ahead of this one. We knew this could possibly be our last home game and that was a big emphasis for our seniors,” Smith said.
“Now that we’ve done that, we will get a chance to see what we can do against one of the best teams in the state. Last year is last year. I haven’t seen them play but tomorrow we will be knee-deep into them.”
The Mustangs won the Central Jersey championship last year but the NJSIAA placed Mainland and Millville both in the South Jersey sectional this season, forcing the Mustangs to clash with the Thunderbolts (9-1) a week ahead of their encounter last year.
Millville, whose only loss came to Toms River North, the top-ranked team in Group V during the regular season, punched its ticket to its third-straight Group IV sectional title game with a 41-7 victory at home against Shawnee High School.
“They have an outstanding defense,” Smith said. “That’s great because we need to see what we can do against an outstanding defense like that.”
Colts Neck hard-running senior running back Chris Scully, the school’s all-time leading rusher, showed up as advertised, scoring the Cougars’ lone touchdown in the second quarter to try to single-handedly get Colts Neck back in the game with 2:21 left in the half.
But those moments were few and far between for Colts Neck as Mainland’s bend-but-don’t-break defensive effort continuously found a way to stall promising Cougar drives.
“Our coaches always come up with great game plans to put us in the right positions to make plays,” DeFeo said. “It’s just a great team effort and we do what we have to do, which is execute what they give us.”
In the end, Mainland simply had too many weapons. Jake Blum, another emerging star, returned the ensuing kickoff to the Cougars 48. Three plays later, quarterback John Franchini found Jamie Tyson behind Cougar defenders again for a 34-yard touchdown grab for a 28-7 lead with a minute left.
“We knew coming in they were going to try to pound us down the field,” defensive back/running back Stephen Ordille said. “We knew we had to stand up and play tough and we stopped them.”
Then, Mainland picked up a Colts Neck fumble on the following kickoff, setting up the Mustangs on the 14.
After Ordille’s run moved the ball to the 3, Franchini found Tyson again for a short touchdown pass just inside the goal line, increasing the lead to 35-7 at halftime.
But there was no bigger play in the game than Tyson’s 83-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first quarter to go up 14-0. Rocco DeBiaso had just given Mainland a 7-0 lead on a 63-yard run on the Mustangs’ first series of the game.
Colts Neck looked poised to answer right back on a 13-play drive that took the Cougars from their own 22 to the Mainland 20 behind the running of Scully and quarterback Dom Beninato. On a fourth-and-eight, Beninato was forced to scramble and Tyson stepped in front of the pass down the sideline and never broke stride for the Pick 6.
“They were kind of driving on us a little bit and we needed a stop at crunch time,” Tyson said. “I saw the quarterback scrambling so I baited him a little bit by staying off my guy. I saw him pull his hand back and that’s when I just jumped the route.”
Smith said Tyson’s interception likely represented a 14-point swing that changed the momentum of the entire game.
“Our defense bent at times but it didn’t break,” Smith said. “The interception really got us going. I thought overall, we played a solid game. I think we scored on every possession except for the JV’s there at the very end.”
The Mustangs removed all doubt by scoring on their first two possessions of the second half to get the running clock the rest of the contest.
For Tyson, Mainland’s top pass-catching threat, it was his second consecutive three-touchdown game and he did it the same way as the week before in the playoff opener against Manalapan, with two touchdown catches on offense and an interception return for a touchdown on defense.
Against Millville, Mainland will be faced with the most prolific passing team they have faced this season in all-stater Lotzeir Brooks and quarterback Jacob Zamot, who led the Thunderbolts to the state title a year ago.
“I’m excited because we’ve been waiting for this since last year when we lost,” Tyson said.
DeFeo said while playing toe to toe with Millville last year will give Mainland confidence, he was not shy about saying revenge will be a factor.
“We’ve been working hard and we really want it. The game we played last year gave us a lot of confidence along with these last two games,” DeFeo said.
Ordille, a starter a year ago, said just playing Millville, considered one of the top football programs in New Jersey, is incentive enough.
“We know they’re a good team but this is what we wanted — to get back at them,” he said. “We know what we’re capable of. We want to come out and have a good week of practice because we know they’ll be the toughest team we’ve played.”
By CLYDE HUGHES/Special to the Sentinel
